How To Choose The Best Esignature App

If you are choosing an esignature app, don't miss our top 7 key points to consider when choosing your app.

Driven by the uptake of digital and the desire to go paperless , the eSignature app is becoming an essential part of business operations. More than that though, at Legalesign we see more and more customers from across sectors such as recruitment, sales, accounting, and healthcare realising that choosing an eSignature app requires more than picking on price alone.

The challenge is to choose an app that can deliver big and immediate savings in the short term, while also being a responsible and responsive supplier to you over the mid to long term. Our guide will help you achieve both those goals. Since contracts are at the heart of a business it’s not a matter to be rushed either, so here are the 7 key points to consider so you can choose the best eSignature app for you.

1. - Does your eSignature app work as you are, and as things might be?

Every business has different ways they get things done, and that changes over time too. You won’t want to change provider every year, so look ahead, your eSignature app should be able to cover all the situations. Does it have functionality for approvers as well as signers, can you send a document to a signer and have that person decide who to send the document on to, or get it back to you for internal approvals? Can you change brand easily, apply different online signing experiences for your signers? eSignature apps should encompass how you do things, handle the unusual situations, and be able to cope if you need to change how you get documents signed in future.

2. - Ease of use

When choosing your eSignature app, ease of use should be at the forefront of your mind. The last thing your business needs is an application that is going to take staff hours and hours to learn to use. For a large organisation, a complex and labourious eSignature app could result in thousands of hours of hidden costs. A good eSignature app allows new employees to be trained up in a few minutes, making your business even more productive.

3. – Wider Features

When looking at eSignature apps, look at the features around the document workflows that give you the ‘extra’ from using e-signature. For example, what are the reminder schedules like, how easily can you change them? Will they skip weekends? Does it handle time zones for signers? Expiry dates are a great way to ensure signers are awake to getting your document signed off. Like the first point in this list, your eSignature app needs to work for YOU and should include all the features your business needs. Talk to our specialists who will advise you on exactly the right additional features to get Legalesign's eSignature app really working for you. Ask us about big time-savers like 'Bulk Sending'.

4. - Security

Wet ink signing is usually highly confidential and signing through your eSignature app should be no different. Many customers use Legalesign for the significant extra surety you get with advanced electronic signature. For example, Certified PDFs from Legalesign will indisputably timestamp your signed documents. But you need to ensure that your data is protected and secure. Certifications like ISO27001 will tell you if the eSignature app has an externally audited framework in place to protect your data. You should also make sure your chosen eSignature app aligns with GDPR regulations. It is easy to assume that they will be GDPR compliant because of how frequently is talked about now, but you should always check for yourself. GDPR features will give you the peace of mind that you are not only in control of your data, but that you have the right facilities to meet your GDPR obligations and avoid potential fines from ICO.

5. - Cost-effective

The chances are you're choosing an eSignature app to save money as well as streamline your business processes. It is important to make sure that you aren't spending more than you should be on an eSignature app. In your due diligence you will compare packages, features, support and user reviews from your top eSignature apps before investing in one. Most eSignature apps offer multiple packages with varying feature-sets and more often than not they are listed on their websites. Also, check for a free trial, it is always a good idea to trial any tool, be it an eSignature app or Accounting software. Choosing cost-effectively is not the same as the cheapest, but a combination of fit with your business, ease-of-use, security, compliance and helpful support.

6. - Scalability

You always want your business to be moving forward, and ideally, you want to keep using the tools that you are now, throughout that journey. This is the same for your eSignature apps, you want to make sure that your app is going to grow as your company does. A good way of telling this is by looking at the packages your eSignature app has - seeing how many users you can add, features for larger scale enterprise businesses, such as how the app manages multiple teams or departments in a manageable way, bearing in mind concerns like GDPR and access security.

7. - Support

You won't miss support until you need it. You need to make sure that your eSignature app offers competent and responsive support in case of any issue or problem arising. The contracts you are sending out need signing and returning and as a business, you don't want to be sat twiddling your thumbs waiting for support to get back to you. A good way to check this is by reading reviews by other users of your eSignature app on customer service and support.